


Halloween

by CoffeeFairy



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Light Angst, M/M, One Shot, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-24
Updated: 2017-11-24
Packaged: 2019-02-06 10:31:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12815613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoffeeFairy/pseuds/CoffeeFairy
Summary: All Percy Whale wants to do on his evening off work is read a good book. When Jefferson Madden turns up trick-or-treating with his daughter, he has no choice but to put the book down.





	Halloween

Percy Whale sat back, his glasses perched on his nose, a new thriller open on his lap and a glass of rich red wine at the side table next to him. His phone was off and he’d bargained with himself that he wouldn’t check his emails for at least two hours. The evening was his. 

 

As head surgeon for the Grimm Memorial Hospital he rarely had any free time at all. When he wasn’t on shift, he was preparing to be or spent time doing research and external consultations. Today was a freak occurrence but one he had decided to make the most of. 

 

Settled in he dove into the story with a content sigh. He’d only gotten past the first two pages and the description of a grisly murder when the bell rang. He considered letting it ring. He wasn’t expecting anyone. But it could be a delivery, out of state hospitals sometimes couriered him medical charts when they needed help. So he got up, marked the page and opened the door.

 

There was no one outside. Or so he thought until he looked down. At about thigh height, a ghost, Spiderman, an astronaut and a fairy chorused “Trick or treat!” With a sinking feeling in his stomach he realised today was October 31st. Halloween. 

 

“Oh. Right.” He pictured his empty cupboards, never stocked as he spent so little time at home. “Erm...One second.” Venturing inside he rifled through his kitchen. When he returned he held out a bag of carrot sticks he’d found hiding in the fridge.

 

“Here you go, take as many as you want.”

 

The fairy turned on her heel, the ghost took a step back, Spiderman said “n’thanks” behind his mask but the astronaut plucked a stick from the bag and bit it. 

 

“Eww, it’s actually carrots!” Then they all filed off the porch. To his dismay, Percy spotted more little costumed people crowding on the street. He slammed the door shut and wondered if he should turn off the lights and pretend he wasn’t home. Then again, he didn’t know how seriously the children took the “trick” part of the evening and he really didn’t want to have anything unpleasant put in his mailbox or clean toilet paper from his yard. So he sighed and left the lights on.

 

This time he only managed on page before the bell rang again.

 

Heaving himself up, he grabbed the bag of carrots and opened the door. Pretty much the same scene played out again, this time to Buzz Lightyear, Dracula and what could be mini Hilary Clinton.

 

Over and over, the door buzzed and carrot sticks were frowned upon. He only got a few more pages in his book and he was getting mightily annoyed with his evening getting interrupted. How late could these children be allowed out of bed, anyway?

 

The doorbell rung once more and he put the book down with more force than necessary. After this one he’d turn the lights off and go to bed. He might as well use the extra time to sleep if he couldn’t spend it reading.

 

Opening the door he found a pretty little blonde girl dressed as a jedi on his porch.

 

“Trick or treat!”

 

“Right, I know it’s Halloween and I know you’re expecting candy, but see I didn’t go to the store so all I have are carrot sticks. Do you want one or are you going to stomp off?”

 

“Can I have one, please? I love carrots.”

 

He blinked and frowned. “Ah...okay. Here,” he handed her the whole bag and she grabbed a handful before handing it back. “That’s all right, you keep that.”

 

“The whole thing?” Her eyes were wide.

 

“Sure.”

 

“Thanks!” She propped a stick in her mouth and munched. “Mister, do you think you could tie my shoe? It’s loose and I don’t know how too.”

 

This was very far from the evening he’d pictured but amused with the straightforward kid, he sank to sit on his knees. 

 

“Okay, foot here,” he patted his knee and obediently she put a moderately clean tennis shoe on his jeans. Tying it quickly he heard steps on the porch, too heavy to be a child and figured the chaperone was coming to check on the little jedi to see what was taking so long. Wise, the thought to himself. There were all kinds of weirdos out there.

 

“Daddy, I got a whole bag of carrots!” The girl announced.

 

“Good haul. Will there be any left for me?”

 

Percy snapped his head up from the little tennis shoe. He’d know that voice anywhere. He hadn’t heard it in fifteen years or so but he knew it immediately.

 

When he looked up he met the eyes that peered down, past the little girl’s shoulder and down at him.

 

“Percy?” The word was drenched in disbelief.

 

“Jefferson.” He set the little foot down and got up.

 

“You know the mister, Daddy?”

 

“I used to.”

 

“A long time ago?”

 

“Yeah, a long time ago.” 

 

Though he was speaking to his daughter, Jefferson’s eyes hadn’t left his since he spotted him. 

 

It had been a long time. 

 

He’d changed, grown taller and broader over the shoulders. Lean muscles covered in jeans and a black overcoat. His hair was windblown and his face chiselled in the weak porchlight. A dart of unbridled lust shot through Percy and he swallowed. So the man had changed but the reaction was the same as always. 

 

Percy crossed his arms over his chest. “So...how are...things?” It was a lame question, forced out of him from politeness. 

 

“Fine. And you?”

 

“Likewise.” The cold of standing on the porch with just his sweater and jeans was getting to him. Or perhaps it was the Ghost of Halloweens Past. “Did you bring your wife for the trick-or-treating?”

 

Jefferson shook his head.

 

“Daddy’s dee-vor-ced,” the girl helpfully piped up from between them.

 

“Oh.” He shifted, let his arms drop. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

 

“Don’t be.” Jefferson’s grin was as mercurial as it had been all those years ago and something in the vicinity of his chest cavity contracted. 

 

“Right. Well…” He looked back over his shoulder, into the house.

 

Jefferson stiffened slightly. “Are we keeping you from your company?”

 

“No, no. I’m just reading tonight.”

 

“I see.” He put a hand to the little girl’s shoulder. “Well, we should be off. It was...nice to see you.”

 

“You too. And you,” he directed to the mini jedi.

 

“Bye!” she called and marched down the steps from his porch. Jefferson lingered a moment, as if he wanted to say something, but then decided against it and with a nod he followed his daughter.

 

Percy closed the door behind them and leaned his forehead against the wood. Jefferson Madden. After all these years. He had no idea he was living in Boston. No idea he had a daughter, that he was divorced. 

 

Because you didn’t want to know, he reminded himself. Though Jefferson would sometimes appear in the papers he always made sure to skip those parts. He hadn’t looked him up online or asked any of their common acquaintances about him. All to avoid hearing anything that would call him to mind or see any part of him that would make the old picture in his head come more alive. The way he saw him in his memories was sketchy, like a stop motion movie reel. It ran, interrupted, parts missing and out of focus. But it still ran. It always had. Ever since the summer when they’d both been sixteen and he’d been hired to tutor the young heir of one of the world’s biggest business conglomerates. It wouldn’t do for him to get kicked out of school and as a desperate measure a tutor Jefferson’s age had been brought in. Percy.

 

He remembered seeing the other boy for the first time, trudging down the stairs in the largest house he’d ever been in. Bark brown hair that waved around his face, a defined jaw and eyes the colour of steel. His heart had started hammering in his chest, his palms had grown clammy and his throat felt slammed shut. He’d never experienced anything like it before. A door had been inched open to something new and profound was on the other side. 

 

The doorbell rung again and he jerked free from the reverie. Not more trick-or-treaters. Why hadn’t he turned off the lights and headed upstairs already? Unable to escape as the people on the other side would be able to see his shape through the window in the door, he opened it. 

 

Jefferson, carrying his daughter and wearing a sheepish expression stood outside.

 

“You’re back,” Percy stated dumbly.

 

“We are...I just discovered I’ve lost my keys and my wallet. I called the locksmith and he says the earliest they can be there is tomorrow morning...I don’t suppose we could…” He looked away for a moment. “I wouldn’t, except we just moved back and I don’t really have anywhere to...to go.”

 

Realizing Jefferson was asking if he could stay, everything in Percy recoiled. He’d been hurt enough by this man and he should just slam the door in his face. But he was carrying his sleeping daughter, and he looked harmless wearing that sheepish expression.

 

“Fine.” Percy stepped back to let them in. “She can take the guest bedroom upstairs and you can have the couch.”

 

“Oh, I’ll share with Grace. She doesn’t take up much room and she’ll be frightened if she wakes up alone.” 

 

Damn the man. Percy had no wish to share the upper floor with Jefferson, he’d much prefer it if he slept downstairs, as far away as he could get.

 

“Very well. It’s the third door on the right upstairs.”

 

“Thank you,” Jefferson said and edged past him, careful not to hit the doorframe. He disappeared up the steps and Percy headed into the kitchen to refill his wine glass. Then he downed it and poured another. His nerves, vibrating in his stomach, felt a little less twisted, as if coated in oil and he distracted himself with taking out another glass.

 

He heard the other man walk around upstairs, and it put tension in his spine. For a moment he considered sending an SOS text to Ruby to have her come over and distract him from Jefferson. But his best friend was out with Archie and their children trick-or-treating. It wouldn’t be fair to pull her away with a friendship code red. He’d have to manage on his own.

 

Percy put on some music, fiddled with the lighting, moved the glasses. Then he thought it looked like a date and turned the music off and the lights brighter. He was still determining the right amount of light when Jefferson returned and he stopped himself.

 

“Is that a drink for me?”

 

Percy nodded, edging backwards. This way they had the whole breakfast bar between them. 

 

“Thank you. Trick-or-treating is mad. You’re surrounded by little dressed up people, it smells of candy everywhere and you get a headache from all the noises and lights.” He took a sip of wine and sighed contentedly.

 

“You used to always like loud noises and bright lights.”

 

He remembered Jefferson had always surrounded himself with noise. Music, wherever he went. 

 

“I like my own noise. Or maybe I just got old.”

 

“You don’t look old.”

 

“Neither do you. In fact you…” A very vague colour washed over Jefferson’s cheeks. “You look good.”

 

Percy knew he’d been a scrawny kid the last time Jefferson saw him. Though he wasn’t in Jefferson’s league, he’d filled out since high school, gotten rid of his constant glasses and had a better haircut. 

 

“Thanks. You...look well.” Well? He looked better than he’d ever had and just seeing him in his kitchen made Percy’s heart pound in his chest like a hammer on an anvil. The brown, slightly wavy hair that looked so soft to the touch, the eyes that struck a colour between gray and blue, like a winter’s lake, the quick smile - all were the same as they’d been. And they affected him just as they had. The wide shoulders, the sculpted chest and the crease in his cheek when he smiled were all new but they just built on the attraction that had always been there. 

 

Cut it out, he told himself. He was a grown man, an intelligent, educated, sensible man and he could resist something as basic as physical attraction. 

 

Jefferson accepted the half compliment with a half smile. Starting forward he stopped on the other side of the breakfast bar. Percy edged back a little further, the kitchen counter pressing against his back. He couldn’t back away any further.

 

“So you did it.” Jefferson was looking at the post stacked on the counter next to his glass. “Became a doctor. Like you wanted.”

 

“Ah...yes. I did.”

 

“Graduate top of your class, doc?”

 

“I...well, there were a lot of intelligent people there and…” Jefferson’s eyes were amused while they rested on his face and he stopped his stumbling. “Yes. Yes, I did.”

 

“I always knew you would. Do you like it?”

 

“Being a doctor? I do.”

 

“Everything you thought it would be?”

 

“Absolutely.”

 

“And do you still get a kick out of people calling you Dr Whale?”

 

Percy was vividly reminded why the man in front of him had used to be able to make him laugh so much. And the way he said doctor chased a thrill up his spine.

 

“Of course I do.”

 

“That must be great. Reminded every day you reached your goal, made something out of yourself. I never amounted to much. Just like my dad predicted.” He shrugged and turned the glass by the stem, watching the liquid swirl.

 

“You’re something. You’re a father.” 

 

Jefferson looked up, surprised, like he hadn’t thought of it quite that way before. 

 

“You have a lot more than a career can offer. If I…” Percy’s voice trailed off, the implication hanging in the air.

 

“So you...you don’t...There’s no one? You’re not with anyone?”

 

Percy was wildly tempted to make up a boyfriend, someone tall and built who was out of the country a lot but always came back and took him on the most romantic dates.

 

“No.”

 

“Me too. Single, I mean,” Jefferson tripped a little on the words.

 

Percy wondered if the other man was trying to be empathic or if he actually cared for him to know he was single. Don’t be stupid, he told himself. Jefferson appeared to prefer women and he’d come to peace with that a long time ago. Or so he’d thought. He despaired at how little it took for Jefferson to drag his thoughts back to where they’d always been concerning him. Even as he remembered how he’d been hurt his fingers ached to card through that soft, floppy hair. His eyes searched out Jefferson like a magnetic pole, his gaze tripping and getting stuck on how he had laughing creases spanning to his temples, how a day’s stubble roughened his jaw, how his hands looked wrapped around the glass. He didn’t know how long he could stand to be around him before the sensations drowned him completely. He wouldn’t be able to trust himself then.

 

“Do you want to watch a movie? I’m sure there are specials on,” he blurted. Anything to distract him from Jefferson’s presence. 

 

“Ah...sure.” 

 

Percy topped off their glasses and they moved to sit on the couch. Jefferson didn’t sprawl like he was wont to do but rested his head on his hand, elbow on the armrest so he was sitting actually leaning away from Percy. The doctor breathed a little sigh of relief he at least wouldn’t have to have the other man in his personal space. He flicked the TV on and picked the first thing that looked like a movie. So focused was he on Jefferson he didn’t realize it was Ghostbusters until the screen filled with pink goo. 

 

Why did that have to be on? Would Jefferson remember? He glanced sideways. Jefferson was staring at the screen, a slanted half smile on his face. Did that mean he did remember, or was it related to the movie? Could he recall, in as much detail as him, the moment they’d first kissed was while watching Ghostbusters on TV? Percy remembered vividly how aware he’d been of Jefferson’s presence throughout the evening. Every time he shifted, he’d noticed, his eyes unwillingly returning to the TV screen when he forced them. The scent of Red Vines in the air, Jefferson’s laugh, the way the couch had felt under his hands. He remembered it all. He remembered when he hadn’t been able to take just sitting there anymore and he’d bid goodbye to their friendship in his head before reaching out. His hand had shaken as he touched Jeff’s shoulder. The other boy had turned quizzically, a smile still on his face before Percy covered it with his lips. It had been a quick pressure of warmth, then he’d pulled back, braced for the angry yelling. But Jefferson had blinked slowly, like he was trying to work out some kind of code. Then he reached for Percy’s collar and instead of shaking him, pulled him close and kissed him. It had been clumsy and and unskilled but Percy’s heart had burnt in his chest and he’d felt the room around them disappear in a wave of blinding light.

 

Now, sixteen years later, they were sitting in the same way, watching the same movie. And his fingers ached to reach for him in the same way.

 

More than the years that had passed stood between them. Jefferson had never chosen him. When it mattered, he hadn’t chosen Percy. The other boy had moved on, had dated, married, had a child. Percy was the one who had been left behind, wanting and heartbroken. It had taken him a long time to put himself back together. Just because an accident of fate had brought the other man back into his life didn’t mean any of that had changed.

 

So he resolved to ignore the heat stirring in his stomach, the longing that rested like mist around his heart. Fastening his eyes on the screen, he stared unseeingly at the movie. 

 

He was so focused on ignoring him, he didn’t notice when Jefferson shifted, or when he moved closer. It was only when he felt their knees were touching he came back to reality and froze. He knew he should move his knee away, should inch away. Jefferson probably hadn’t even realized he was doing it. He glanced at him. The other man was still watching the movie, his eyes dancing as the huge marshmallow man moved across the screen. Percy’s eyes fell back to their knees touching. Jefferson was wearing black jeans, his were blue. The area where they were actually touching was incredibly small and yet he felt like the nerve endings in that spot had blazed alive. So focused was he that every sensation increased, Jefferson’s skin seeming to burn through the fabric. Then he felt a touch to his shoulder. Sure Jefferson would be grinning at catching him staring, he steeled himself and turned his head to meet his eyes.

 

Jefferson’s gaze burned into his with a look that made air catch in his throat. Then his lips were on Percy’s and his hands cupped Percy’s face. Surprise only lasted a split second and his resolve to protest barely a moment. So with a sigh he wound his hands in Jefferson’s hair like he had wanted and took everything he wanted to give. 

 

The kiss that had started timid, questioning, quickly warmed to passionate before hurtling into desperate. Percy felt like a house that had been left empty for years had suddenly been unlocked, opened and lit. The rooms he had once known held life once more. Shifting, he turned to face Jefferson and encouraged the other man moved to allow Percy’s leg to settle between the back of the couch and his hip. Pulling him closer, wrapping his arms around his back and tilting his head Jefferson deepened the kiss. Percy’s heart galloped in his chest, his breathing fast and shallow. So long. It had been so long. Like a man wandering through the desert he had found water and he wanted to drink it down in deep, fast gulps. 

 

Jefferson was just as eager, his hands running over him hurriedly, his breathing strained. It seemed like a miracle. A miracle under his hands. Jeff hooked his hand under his knee and in one move backed, lifted Percy and slipped him lower on the couch so he was almost lying flat on his back. Hovering over him, he lowered himself, closer and closer. His chest melded to his and Percy couldn’t help rolling his hips. Jefferson groaned deep and the sound rumbled through Percy. Mirroring the gesture, Jeff ground against Percy and the unexpected friction made his back arch off the couch. Desperate, Percy pushed his hands between them and found Jefferson’s belt buckle. Fighting with it, Jefferson sat back. Then his hand came to rest over his.

 

“Wait. Grace.” The one word had Percy’s hands stilling. With a slow smile, Jefferson tilted his head up by the chin. His eyes were so dark they were almost black. “Next time.” 

 

Percy knew there would never be a next time, that he was on borrowed time from the past. Something in the time space continuum had created a pocket where he and Jefferson were in the same place, feeling the same. Maybe it was even a dream.

 

Then Jefferson kissed him again and he didn’t care. Didn’t care if this was all he would ever have. As long as he could have this moment. So he returned the kiss and pressed Jefferson to lie back on the couch, turning the tables. 

 

o.O.o

 

Percy sat at the breakfast bar the next morning dressed in the jeans from last night and a white t-shirt. His feet were bare and his coffee cup sat before him untouched. Staring down onto the counter, his head in his hands, he wondered if he could diagnose himself as temporarily insane or if one of his colleagues would have to do it to ensure as little bias as possible. He must have taken a leave of his senses if he made out with Jefferson until the small hours. If it hadn’t been for the fact he’d heard Grace talking in the guest room and felt his lips were tender from the previous night’s activities, he’d have thought he’d dreamed it all.

 

Why? Why was he such a glutton for punishment when it came to this man? Hadn’t he suffered enough without having the unavailable, gorgeous, infuriating man back in his life? But however he berated himself he knew the weak spot was there all the same. Jefferson had been his first love. He would always hold that place. If it happened again he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop himself. Jefferson was a drug and to have him running through his bloodstream was an unbeatable high. He’d do anything for it. 

 

He heard steps on the stairs and sighed. It was time to check himself into rehab again. The second Jefferson left.

 

“Morning,” Jeff spoke from the doorway. He leaned against the doorjamb and Percy’s mouth went dry. His hair was still tangled from the night before, his lips just a little swollen. 

 

“Mm,” was all Percy managed and he gulped some coffee to ease his throat. All it did was scald his tongue.

 

“We’re just leaving, the locksmith says he’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

 

“Right.” He got up. “Do you...want some coffee? Breakfast?”

 

Grace opened her mouth, the enthusiasm alive in her eyes. But Jefferson shook his head.

 

“I’m afraid we have to go.”

 

Percy nodded. There it was. The end of the dream. Cold, harsh reality was knocking on the door.

 

“Of course.” He got up and showed them to the door. Grace sped out with a quick “bye”, spotting some children in the yard next door and beelining for them. Jefferson moved slower, putting his hands in his pockets and weighing on his feet.

 

“Right...I guess...I’m going.”

 

“Yes. Goodbye, Jefferson, it was...interesting to see you.”

 

Jeff’s smile flashed for a moment. “You too, Percy.” Then he walked down the steps and turned up his collar to the wind. Percy watched for a moment longer before shutting the door. Sighing, he stared accusingly at the couch. How could it look exactly as it had yesterday? All innocuous and dumpy. 

 

There was a knock on the door and expecting girl scouts or mormons was surprised to see Jefferson.

 

“Jefferson. Did you forget something?”

 

“Yes.” His eyes were laughing. “Trick or treat, Percy?”

 

“What?”

 

“Come on. Trick or treat?”

 

Percy sighed. He wouldn’t put it past Jefferson to shove a handful of mud in his face or something at him if he said trick. Maybe that would help him seem less perfect. So he rolled his eyes and crossed his arms and responded,

 

“Trick.”

 

“Will you go out with me?”

 

Percy blinked, dropped his arms to his sides. “I…”

 

“Please?” Jefferson stepped closer and put a hand to his cheek. The kiss that followed was different from last night’s. Soft, longing, lingering. 

 

“Yes.” He had breathed the word before he knew it. Jefferson’s lips curved before they met his again and patiently swallowed every last objection Percy could think of. 

 

“I’ll call you.” Jefferson rested his forehead on Percy’s for a moment before leaving with a last peck. He was almost all the way to sidewalk when Percy woke and called from the edge of the deck,

 

“Jefferson!” The other man spun on his heel, wearing a wide smile and his coat hanging open. “What if I’d chosen “treat”?”

 

“Then you’d have taken me out. It has to be a treat for the asker, remember?” Then he winked and was off. 

 

Percy watched him and Grace until they got to the end of the street. 

 

Epilogue

One Year Later

 

“How does it feel to be on this side of the action?” Jefferson asked behind him and Percy turned from watching Grace ringing the bell of a blue door across the street. 

 

“Better.”

 

Jefferson stood with his hands in his pockets, smiling as Grace eagerly grabbed a fistul of gummy worms from the lady who lived in the house. She was a dressed as a mad scientist this year and stood out among the many princesses and Iron Men.

 

“And you wouldn’t rather sit at home with a good book and a glass of wine?”

 

“And miss this? No way. Besides, Grace promised me half her haul if I came with.”

 

“Really?” Jefferson sidled closer. “Cause she promised me half her haul.”

 

Percy chuckled. “Yeah, we’re still struggling with the fractions.”

 

“Thank God it’s you and not me. I detest fractions. And short division. And the multiplications table.”

 

“Daddy, daddy, look, I have ten more candies now!”

 

“Ten, wow! How many do I get?”

 

“Half.” Grace said stolidly and bit into a gummy worm.

 

“And what about Percy?”

 

“He gets half too.”

 

“And you, what do you get?”

“The other half, silly.” Then she turned to Percy, her mouth full of gummy worm and her hands sticky, smelling of sugar and crackling excitement.

 

“Dad, can you tie my shoe?” She wiggled her small trainer clad foot. 

 

Percy felt the world still around him, the word laying a weight around his shoulders. A weight he had never thought he would have ever wanted but now couldn’t imagine living without. The weight of responsibility and love for the little girl in front of him. He felt Jefferson’s hand on his shoulder, squeezing. He’d heard it too.

 

“Yeah,” he croaked. “Yeah, of course I can.” Percy crouched and she put her foot on his knee while munching on her sweet. He tied her lace and with a called thanks, she set off for the next house. Still crouching he felt Jefferson’s hand on his neck, rubbing. Then the other man crouched next to him as well.

 

“She knows how to tie her shoes now,” Jefferson said.

 

“I know.”

 

“I guess she made it official before I could.”

 

“What?”

 

“It wasn’t really the time and place I pictured, but hey, Grace picked it and I trust her. So, Percy, what do you say? Will you marry me? Us?”

 

He sat back, on his knees, resting on his heels. Water from the rain wet street seeped through his jeans. 

 

“I…”

 

“I know it’s fast, and we don’t have to. But I want you to know I want to. I want you, forever, Percy.”

 

His voice seemed to have gotten trapped in his throat, emotion choking him. “Of...course, I want to.”

 

“So, you’re saying…?”

 

“Yes! Yes, I’ll marry you.”

 

Jefferson laughed and pulled him close for a kiss, sitting in the middle of the street surrounded by children, laughter and the repeated words “Trick or Treat!”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
